The Major Project Podcast

Orion Matthews
  • 5.0 (12)
  • Business
  • Updated Biweekly

Every day, somewhere in the world, a billion-dollar project is underway — reshaping skylines, powering nations, and pushing the limits of what’s possible. But behind every megaproject are the people who plan, measure, and keep it all on track. Hosted by Orion Matthews, founder of Queryon, The Major Project Podcast dives into the world of Project Controls — the art and science of delivering the biggest projects on earth. From energy and infrastructure to tech and space, we talk to the leaders managing billions in scope, risk, and ambition. Join us as we uncover the lessons, failures, and innovations that define how major projects actually get built — and how data, risk, and human judgment come together when the stakes couldn’t be higher.

  1. 1d ago

    Bonus Episode: ”Being Right Isn’t Enough” - Omer Iqbal on What Actually Advances a Career in Major Projects

    Omer Iqbal returns for a bonus episode focused on career advice for project controls professionals - from how to actually get noticed in an organization, to why doing everything by the book might be holding you back. He shares his go-to books, the two habits he says can transform any career, and why staying curious is more than just good advice. If you're early in your career or feeling stuck, this one's for you.

  2. 1d ago

    You Cannot Outsource Accountability: Inside a $30B Infrastructure Portfolio with Omer Iqbal

    Most project teams are exceptionally good at delivering a project the wrong way. Omer Iqbal has spent 20 years learning to fix that - from the portfolio level. Omer Iqbal is Senior Portfolio Manager in the Investment PMO at Sydney Water, where he oversees a $30 billion capital program serving 6 million people. His career has run from site engineering on a $20M oil and gas job to board service, MBA, and portfolio leadership across some of Australia's most complex infrastructure. In this episode, he shares the frameworks he developed to help executives actually understand what's happening inside a billion-dollar portfolio - and make better decisions because of it. Guest Bio Omer Iqbal is Senior Portfolio Manager in the Investment PMO at Sydney Water, managing a $30 billion capital portfolio serving 6 million people. With 20 years across oil and gas, mining, defense, and major infrastructure - and former president of PMI Sydney chapter - Omer bridges project delivery and board-level investment strategy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/moigoheer/ What You'll Learn 1. The shift from "are we delivering right" to "are we delivering the right thing" At the project level, success means managing scope, schedule, and budget. At the portfolio level, those metrics don't tell you whether the project should exist at all. Omer describes the moment this clicked - simultaneously managing a complex COVID-era project at Transport for NSW, earning an MBA, and serving on a board. The canvas of thinking, as he puts it, completely expanded. Zooming out that far is disorienting at first. Eventually, it's the only view that makes sense. 2. "The most expensive meeting is where everybody agrees" When everyone in a room nods along, no one is doing their job. Omer's counter is psychological safety - which he calls 100% a leadership responsibility, non-negotiable. His personal rule with his team: "Your failure is mine, 100%. If we succeed, that success is your title, 100%." That one principle removes the fear that keeps people quiet in rooms where silence is expensive. 3. The difference between a dashboard and executive intelligence: What, So What, Now What Dashboards tell you what is happening. Executive intelligence goes further: So what does this mean for our regulatory exposure, our asset condition, our risk appetite? And then: Now what action is required - and from whom? Omer's team built custom portfolio indicators (including a portfolio cost index that flags hidden cost blowouts before they surface) specifically to make what's invisible visible - and to frame it in a way that triggers decisions, not just awareness. 4. You cannot outsource accountability - including to AI AI can run Monte Carlo simulations in minutes. It can draft schedules, surface trends, and produce beautifully formatted reports. What it cannot do is be held accountable when a decision goes wrong. Omer's governance rule for his team: whenever you use AI to produce an artifact, save the prompt too. The prompt is the scope of work for the AI - and tracing it back is how you keep humans in the loop where they belong. Episode Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction 02:00 — From a $20M oil and gas job to billion-dollar infrastructure 05:00 — The portfolio mindset shift: board service, MBA, and COVID 08:00 — Full circle: what it actually means to be the project sponsor 13:00 — Sydney Water: 1.5 billion liters/day, $30B in the pipeline, 80 investment drivers 19:00 — Why earned value management breaks down at portfolio scale 25:00 — What executives should actually be asking before signing a business case 32:00 — "The most expensive meeting is where everybody agrees" — building psychological safety 40:00 — Portfolio Cost Index: the single number that surfaces hidden cost blowouts 49:00 — Dashboard vs. executive intelligence: What, So What, Now What 1:04:00 — Governance and AI: why you cannot outsource accountability Resources Mentioned Atomic Habits — James Clear Rapid Transformation — Catriona Wallace Toby Ord — AI risk research (referenced in Rapid Transformation) PMI Sydney Chapter — pmi.org.au NEC Suite (contract framework used at Sydney Water) Tools referenced: SAP, Primavera P6, Maximo, Coupler

  3. Jun 15

    Bonus Episode: The One Skill Every Future Project Leader Needs with Iwona Wilson

    In this bonus segment, Iwona Wilson shares her advice for the next generation of project leaders. She makes the case for developing critical thinking above all else, explains how AI is reshaping the skills students need to stay relevant, and offers practical guidance on where to find the right experiences early in your career. Iwona also walks through her book, her decision gate training program, and where to connect with her online.

  4. Jun 15

    017 - The Hidden Reason Billion-Dollar Projects Overrun Even With Stage Gate

    Every major capital project team will tell you they have a decision gate process. According to Iwona Wilson, having the process and having the capability to use it are two completely different things - and the gap between them is costing the industry hundreds of millions per project. Iwona Wilson is co-founder and CEO of Wilson Biz Consulting and author of Where Projects Are Won or Lost: A Practical Guide to Early Decision Framing and Governance. With 20 years across oil and gas, mining, and capital projects in Australia, the UK, and the US - including over a decade teaching decision gate process at one of Australia's largest energy producers, she's built her career around the question most organizations don't ask until it's too late: are we making good decisions, or just passing gates? Iwona Wilson is co-founder and CEO of Wolfson Peace Consulting and author of Where Projects Are Won or Lost: A Practical Guide to Early Decision Framing and Governance. With 20 years across oil and gas, mining, and capital projects in Australia, the UK, and the US, she specializes in decision gate process, opportunity framing, and building the organizational capabilities that separate projects that deliver from those that overrun. https://www.linkedin.com/in/iwona-wilson/ What You'll Learn 1. Having a decision gate process is not the same as having decision-making capability Most organizations have phases, templates, and mandatory gate checklists. What they're missing is the ability to frame opportunities, challenge assumptions, align stakeholders across functions, and measure decision quality. When companies call Iwona for help, it's almost always after a major overrun or project cancellation - not before. The process without the capability is an approval system, not a governance system. 2. Projects are won or lost before the FID - and most organizations ignore this The final investment decision gets all the attention. But by the time it arrives, the team is emotionally, politically, and financially committed. Real leverage lives in the assess and concept phases, when assumptions are still negotiable and changes are cheapest. Iwona's rule: all decisions are equally important, but not all carry the same consequences. The early ones carry the most — because no one's watching yet. 3. Six dimensions of decision quality - and why commitment is always the weakest Iwona teaches the decision quality wheel: appropriate frame, creative alternatives, relevant information, values and trade-offs, sound logic, and commitment to action. The quality of your decision is only as good as its weakest dimension. Teams can produce brilliant analysis and clear options — and still have no one willing to own the outcome. Commitment is where good decisions die. 4. Opportunity framing workshops work because they're designed to be uncomfortable Traditional meetings self-censor. When real disagreement surfaces — what researcher Sam Kaner calls the "groan zone" - most leaders schedule a follow-up and call it progress. Opportunity framing workshops use a neutral facilitator to carry teams through that discomfort intentionally. Teams that do the hard work early execute faster and encounter fewer surprises. "An opportunity framing workshop can be really messy," Iwona says. "But this is the cost of alignment." Episode Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction 02:00 — Iwona's path from quality assurance and Young's Brewery to capital projects 05:00 — Decision gate process 101: phases, gates, FID, and post-investment review 10:00 — Why project compliance doesn't produce project confidence 17:00 — The owner's responsibility: who is actually accountable for project success 22:00 — Shifting teams from deliverables focus to decision-making focus 28:00 — Why early decisions matter more than FID — and cost the least to change 35:00 — Warning signs that your gate reviews are theater, not governance 44:00 — Opportunity framing workshops: the groan zone and the cost of alignment 58:00 — The Challenger disaster and what megaprojects still miss about frontline knowledge 1:02:00 — Six dimensions of decision quality and the commitment trap 1:09:00 — The billion-dollar math: $500M average overrun on a $1B project Resources Mentioned Decision Analysis — David Skinner (founder, Society of Decision Professionals) Where Projects Are Won or Lost — Iwona Wilson and Austin Wilson (available on Amazon) Society of Decision Professionals — sdpro.org (Houston chapter, University of Houston student chapter) Wolfson Peace Consulting — www.wilson.biz Decision gate training and cohort — academy.wilson.biz Upcoming: Global Project Management Forum, Riyadh (September); PMI Houston Conference (August)

  5. Jun 1

    016 - Risk Management on Megaprojects: Lessons from the Leviathan Project

    Most major projects manage risk in Excel. Matt Mitchell spent a decade managing it differently - including as risk lead on a $3.9 billion offshore gas platform in the Mediterranean. In this episode, Orion sits down with Matt Mitchell — a certified risk management professional with over a decade of experience across energy and industrial megaprojects — to go deep on one of the most underinvested disciplines in capital project delivery: risk management. Drawing on his time as risk lead for the Leviathan Project, a $3.9 billion offshore gas platform off the coast of Israel, Matt explains how risk management actually works at scale — from structuring workshops to running Monte Carlo simulations to navigating the political dynamics that keep real risks hidden. Whether you're a risk professional, a project manager, or an executive who's wondered what risk management is actually supposed to deliver, this is the most practical conversation on the subject we've had on the show. Matt Mitchell is a certified risk management professional with over a decade of experience in risk and project controls across energy and industrial sectors. He served as risk lead at Noble Energy on the Leviathan Project — a $3.9 billion offshore gas platform in the Mediterranean — managing risk from FID through execution. He is currently building Electrical Grid Monitoring, a venture focused on innovative power line sensors, and is a member of Mints International. 🔗 LinkedIn What You'll Learn 1. Split risk registers aren't a workaround — they're best practice On Leviathan, Matt maintained separate registers for different project levels and stakeholder groups. A single monolithic register collapses under the weight of a megaproject. Splitting by owner, contractor, and discipline keeps risk ownership clear and review meetings productive. 2. Risk workshops only work if contractors feel safe to speak The most dangerous risks on a megaproject live inside your contractors' heads — and they won't share them in a room full of owners unless you create the right conditions. Matt's approach: structured workshops with pre-work, clear ground rules, and a facilitator who knows when to push and when to hold back. 3. Monte Carlo isn't just for statisticians P50 means you have a 50% chance of finishing on time or on budget. P75 means 75%. Matt explains how to have that conversation with an executive who's never seen a probability distribution — and why choosing the wrong confidence level can sink your contingency strategy before the project starts. 4. Risk culture is built one conversation at a time "One is greater than zero" — Matt's philosophy for getting risk identification started when a team is stuck. The risk champions program he describes is a practical model for distributing risk ownership across a large, multi-contractor project without creating bureaucracy. Episode Timestamps 00:00 — Introduction 03:00 — Matt's background and path to megaproject risk management 07:00 — The Leviathan Project: $3.9B offshore gas platform overview 10:00 — Risk fundamentals: definitions, COSO framework, and black swans 18:00 — Designing and running effective risk workshops 22:00 — The valve example: one conversation that revealed a systemic risk 27:00 — Getting contractors to surface the risks they're hiding 30:00 — Monte Carlo simulation explained in plain language 34:00 — P50 vs. P75: choosing your confidence level and defending it 39:00 — Ancient artifacts on the seafloor: when risk becomes archaeology 40:00 — Risk champions program and building a risk culture across contractors Resources Mentioned: ISO 31000 — International risk management framework COSO ERM — Enterprise Risk Management framework PMI (Project Management Institute) — project risk guidance PERT — Program Evaluation Review Technique (for smaller projects) Monte Carlo simulation — quantitative risk analysis methodology Noble Energy / Leviathan Project Electrical Grid Monitoring — Matt's current venture Mints International If this episode gave you new frameworks for managing risk on complex projects, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And if you're building a risk culture in your organization, we'd love to hear what's working — drop a comment below or connect with Matt directly.

  6. May 15

    150+ Years of Project Controls Wisdom: Lessons from Four AACE Presidents

    Before the panel started, the moderator was warned: "Good luck controlling this bunch." Four AACE presidents. 150+ combined years. They lived up to it. Recorded live at the 2026 AACE Houston Gulf Coast Symposium, host Orion Matthews sits down with four current and former AACE International Presidents for an unfiltered conversation on leadership, AI, remote work, and the future of project controls - drawing on decades of experience across megaproject delivery, cost engineering, claims, and global capital programs. The megaproject industry hits cost, schedule, and production targets just 1% of the time. Martin Darley dropped this number mid-conversation and the panel barely flinched - because they've all seen it. The question isn't whether there's a problem. It's why, after 150+ combined years of experience, the same mistakes keep repeating. The panel's answer points to a gap that has nothing to do with technical skill. The gap between a strong technical contributor and a trusted advisor isn't technical - it's soft skills. Martin put it directly: "The differentiator between doing the work and advising a GM at Chevron is soft skills. Cost engineers aren't wired that way." Chris Caddell echoed it with a paper he wrote on the "so what?" problem: too many project controls reports lay out numbers without making a recommendation. Learning to influence, communicate, and own a call is the career unlock most technical professionals never fully make. Remote work works better for experienced practitioners than for people just starting out. The panel wasn't anti-remote, but the sharpest line came from Martin, quoting IPA's Ed Mirro: "If you're in your bedroom on a laptop, how do you manage your career?" Michael Bennick added a specific concern: new professionals starting out fully remote miss the informal learning, mentorship, and calibration that only comes from proximity to experienced practitioners. The consensus was clear - site presence builds instincts that can't be replicated through a screen. AI won't replace project controls professionals - but it will change what the job looks like. As sitting AACE president overseeing 6,000+ members, Michael Bennick framed it as an opportunity, not a threat - and argued the association has an obligation to help members get out front on it. Martin's enthusiasm was the strongest in the room: "I've been waiting all my career for an enabler like this." Mike Nosbisch held the line on what won't change: someone still has to interpret the output, make the recommendation, and own the decision. The judgment-makers aren't going anywhere. Timestamps 00:00 – Intro & Welcome to the LIVE AACE Panel 01:30 – How the Panelists Found Their Way into Project Controls 05:00 – Early Career Lessons & Megaproject Experiences 08:30 – Technical Skills vs Leadership Skills 12:00 – Why Communication Is Critical in Project Controls 16:00 – AI in Project Controls: Opportunity vs Hype 22:00 – How AI Could Change Reporting & Decision-Making 26:30 – Remote Work vs In-Person Collaboration 31:30 – International Projects & Cultural Differences 35:00 – Why Megaprojects Keep Repeating the Same Mistakes 38:30 – Advice for Young Professionals Entering the Industry 41:30 – Final Leadership Lessons & Closing Thoughts Featured Guests Michael Bennick — Current President of AACE International, Managing Director at J.S. Held Chris Caddell — Former AACE President, Director at Spire Consulting Group Martin Darley — Former AACE President, Former Senior Advisor at Chevron Michael Nosbisch — Former AACE President, Visiting Professor at Texas A&M University

  7. May 1

    015 - The Talent Crisis in Project Controls: Why the Next Generation Is Opting Out

    The project controls industry has a looming problem—and it's not technical. In this episode, Orion sits down with Christina Robinson — founder of Henry Porter LLC and project controls advisor with 14 years across energy, utilities, and infrastructure — to diagnose a crisis that most industry leaders are misreading. The problem isn't a skills shortage: it's a culture and systems problem that's causing younger professionals to actively choose other paths. Christina makes the case that if organizations don't redesign how they work, how they lead, and how they treat people, no amount of recruiting will fix the pipeline. Christina Robinson is a project controls advisor and founder of Henry Porter LLC, a consultancy helping organizations build stronger project controls functions across energy, utilities, and infrastructure. With 14 years of industry experience, Christina is a vocal advocate for modernizing workplace culture and building more inclusive, human-centered project environments — and she brings both the professional track record and the personal candor to make this conversation one of the most honest in the series. https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-robinson-128960383/ Key Takeaways: The talent pipeline problem is structural, not generational. Christina pushes back on the idea that younger professionals simply don't want to work hard. The real issue is that project controls is asking people to accept rigid systems, limited autonomy, and slow career progression at the exact moment that entrepreneurship, digital platforms, and the creator economy are offering faster rewards and greater flexibility. It's not a values gap — it's a rational calculation. Outdated workflows are your biggest retention risk. When new hires encounter legacy systems and manual processes that haven't evolved in decades, it doesn't just frustrate them — it signals something about the organization. That signal says: we don't change. And that's what triggers early exits before the organization even realizes it has a retention problem. Culture and inclusion aren't soft issues — they're project delivery issues. Christina draws directly on personal experience to connect how bias and exclusion affect retention, particularly for underrepresented groups. Teams where people don't feel valued or supported underperform on projects. The link between psychological safety and project outcomes is direct, not theoretical. You don't have to overhaul everything to start competing for talent. Christina's practical advice: identify one or two visible friction points — a rigid attendance policy, a broken workflow, a missing flexibility — and change them deliberately. Early, visible wins build organizational trust and send a signal to both candidates and current employees that the culture is actually moving.   ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – Intro & Episode Setup 01:00 – Christina’s Career Journey into Project Controls 04:45 – Why Early Site Experience Matters 06:15 – Is There a Youth Engagement Crisis? 08:45 – Social Media, Expectations & Changing Motivations 10:15 – What Younger Professionals Actually Want (4 Key Drivers) 12:15 – Fixing Broken Workflows & Investing in Technology 13:45 – Flexibility, Remote Work & Mental Health 16:15 – Generational Shifts & Workplace Evolution 20:45 – Pay, Autonomy & the Breakdown of the Corporate Ladder 23:45 – ROI of a Happier Workforce 27:00 – How Leaders Can Attract & Retain Talent 34:30 – Workplace Culture, Discrimination & Retention Risks 49:15 – Remote vs. Onsite: Finding the Right Balance 57:30 – Advice for Young Professionals Entering the Industry 1:02:00 – Books, Resources & Final Takeaways   Resources Mentioned: Henry Porter LLC — Christina's consultancy Package Your Genius by Amanda Miller Littlejohn Good American / Emma Grede — entrepreneurship and leadership insights Texas Southern University — early pipeline partnership example

  8. Apr 15

    014 - Systems Thinking in Megaprojects: How to Fix Broken Integration

    Most project failures aren’t caused by a single issue - they’re the result of broken integration. In this episode, Orion sits down with Ellie Moradinezhad, founder of tactHive Consulting and former Global Discipline Director at Hatch, where she oversaw project management development across 4,000+ projects in 70 countries - to unpack the most misunderstood concept in major project delivery: integration. Ellie introduces a practical three-part framework that separates vertical, horizontal, and cross-functional integration across three domains - systems, procedures, and people - and explains why organizations consistently misread integration failures as personality conflicts. If you've ever watched a project fall apart despite having all the right tools and talent in the room, this episode explains what was actually missing. Ellie Moradinezhad is the President and Founder of tactHive Consulting, a Canadian advisory firm focused on business-driven PMOs, project governance, and performance improvement for complex capital programs. With 24 years of experience across infrastructure, energy, transportation, and industrial sectors — including Canada's Eglinton Crosstown LRT and GO Expansion — she most recently served as Global Discipline Director for Project Management Development at Hatch (70 offices, 150 countries). 🔗 LinkedIn | tactHive Consulting Key Takeaways Integration is three things, not one. Ellie's framework distinguishes vertical integration (strategy connecting to field execution), horizontal integration (disciplines and functions aligned across the same organization), and cross-functional integration (separate organizations operating as one in JV or collaborative models). Most project teams are actively managing only one of these while the other two quietly break down. Your integration problem is being called a people problem. When cross-functional coordination fails, leaders default to blaming personalities. Ellie argues the root cause is almost always structural: role ambiguity, procedures designed for one team that everyone else is forced to use, and tools implemented without cross-discipline training. Change management failure starts at bid phase. By the time you're trying to align teams during execution, the structural misalignment is already baked in. Embedding change management from the earliest stages — when roles, norms, and working relationships are first being established — is the highest-leverage intervention available. In joint ventures, RACI isn't admin overhead — it's risk management. Ellie walks through how the absence of role clarity in collaborative delivery models creates the ambiguity that causes integration to collapse under schedule pressure and stakeholder conflict. Timestamps: 00:00 — Introduction: Ellie's path from chemical engineering to systems thinking 08:15 — What "integration" really means beyond IT and systems 16:40 — The three-type, three-domain integration framework explained 24:30 — Why organizations misdiagnose integration failures as people problems 35:10 — Lessons from joint ventures and collaborative delivery models 44:20 — Role clarity and RACI as active risk management tools 55:00 — PMO design at scale: Hatch across 4,000 projects and 70 offices 1:05:30 — Why change management must start at bid phase 1:14:00 — AI's emerging role in planning, reporting, and risk analysis 1:22:00 — How systems thinking shapes the next generation of project leaders Resources Mentioned: tactHive Consulting — Ellie's advisory firm PMI OPM3 — Organizational Project Management Maturity Model PRINCE2 / P3M3 — Project maturity frameworks Key concepts: Vertical/Horizontal/Cross-functional Integration, RACI, Systems Thinking, Change Management

See All (21)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

Every day, somewhere in the world, a billion-dollar project is underway — reshaping skylines, powering nations, and pushing the limits of what’s possible. But behind every megaproject are the people who plan, measure, and keep it all on track. Hosted by Orion Matthews, founder of Queryon, The Major Project Podcast dives into the world of Project Controls — the art and science of delivering the biggest projects on earth. From energy and infrastructure to tech and space, we talk to the leaders managing billions in scope, risk, and ambition. Join us as we uncover the lessons, failures, and innovations that define how major projects actually get built — and how data, risk, and human judgment come together when the stakes couldn’t be higher.

Information

  • Creator
    Orion Matthews
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    21
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Major Project Podcast